For 140 years, scientists argued over the link between modern birds and dinosaurs. The final, feathery piece of the puzzle fell into place two years ago when farmers in China unearthed the "fuzzy raptor." This 124-million-year-old fossil has the bones of a dinosaur and the feathers of a bird. Now it's flown to Europe...

Confuciusornis

THE GEOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF CHINA

The fossil of the Confuciusornis

Because Confuciusornis is such a common fossil in the Liaoning deposits, scientists now speculate about vast colonies that may have lived on the shores of the ancient Chinese lake. Of all the feathered dinosaurs, Confuciusornis is the oldest to exhibit a nearly-modern flight apparatus. It still had fully-functional raptorial claws on its thumb and middle fingers, but its index finger  the finger that supports the flight feathers  was composed of broad, flat bones and a reduced claw. There are several anatomical peculiarities, including flight feathers that are longer than the body, which indicate that it had already diverged from the direct line leading to birds.